ARTICLES ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST BY DATE - PAGE 3

(Repeats for wider audience; story unchanged) * Sky News admits email hacking on two occasions * Says actions were justified, in public interest * Shares down 3.4 percent By Georgina Prodhan and Kate Holton LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Sky News, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, said on Thursday it had hacked into emails on two occasions but insisted it had acted in the public interest, as the channel's parent company faces an investigation by British regulators.

The fracas Friday involving monologuist Mike Daisey and the public radio show "This American Life" is not just the latest scandal of a purported truth teller caught in at least an act of embellishment, if not an outright lie, but a double-barreled cautionary tale. It reveals the perils of what can happen to news organizations when, in the pursuit of populist storytelling or buzz-heavy names, they subcontract their reporting to artists or entertainers. And it reveals what can happen to artists and entertainers when they become so seduced by the desire to compound their real-world influence that they obscure or misrepresent the nature of their work.

One Chicago group that's determined to repopulate the city's vacant buildings and another that largely works behind the scenes to effect social change have been tapped by the MacArthur Foundation to receive almost $3 million in funding. Community Investment Corp. and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest are among 15 organizations in six countries, and the only Illinois groups, to be named recipients of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

There is a solution to this economic mess: blocking public financing of campaigns. Make it illegal for an individual or corporation to give a candidate even one dollar. That eliminates the PACs, lobbyists and other special interest money. And who knows, maybe poor or even middle class candidates could afford to run for office. Decisions would be made for the common good. Many of our politicians say they "serve" in office; that's true, but some get served before and more frequently than others.

It couldn't have started more dramatically. A 6 a.m. arrest of a sitting governor at his home, followed by uncharacteristically strong remarks by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who famously described Rod Blagojevich as carrying out a "political corruption crime spree" and said his misconduct would make "Lincoln roll over in his grave. " Fitzgerald's controversial comments defined the case against Blagojevich for the news media and public, signaling the sale of the U.S. Senate seat as the marquee charge and ratcheting up pressure on the government to prove it. That was 2 1/2 years ago. On Monday, after a second trial, a jury concurred with Fitzgerald, convicting Blagojevich of 17 of 20 counts of corruption, including the sale of the Senate seat.

Fifty years ago in May, Chicagoan Newton Minow described television as a "vast wasteland. " He did not insert the phrase in the speech. He believes John Bartlow Martin , a famous journalist and speechwriter, did. And Minow never anticipated it would become part of America's vocabulary. Still, as President John F. Kennedy 's new, 35-year-old FCC chairman, he could foresee that broadcasters would be unhappy with his remarks, and his staff wanted the phrase removed.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to make public the names of every law-abiding citizen who owns a gun. That sounds like so much politics aimed at those who don't like the idea of people owning guns. You can see the political potential for Lisa. But when those names are released, there's potential of another kind. Burglars may target law-abiding residents to steal their valuable firearms. Some people may get hurt. I'm not just talking about the burglars, who shouldn't expect milk and cookies if they break into someone's home.

The candidates in the Chicago mayoral race talk a lot about jobs, crime, education and city finances, sometimes doing so while shaking hands with potential voters at CTA rail stations. Yet with the Feb. 22 election coming up, none of the candidates has had much to say about transportation, whether it's the Chicago Transit Authority 's perennial funding crisis or the financial challenge to rescue the troubled plan for new runways at O'Hare International Airport . Transportation issues are not raised on the candidates' campaign Web pages, and no one has put together a position paper.